inherited stamp collection??

[albireo13]

My Dad passed away from Covid this summer.
He was an avid stamp collector and left behind large
boxes of stamps ... young and old.
I don’t know anything about stamps and am thinking it
could be worth something.

How best can I have them checked out and assessed?

 

[Souschef]

It may be tedious, but the Scott catalog is the bible for retail prices. I helped a neighbor price their collection, and there was not really much value.In recent years, the post office cranked out all kinds of commemoratives.
There are some site that have free downloads of the catalog.

In most cases, cancelled stamps are worth very little. Higher denomination stamps are usually worth more, especially ones from the 40's and earlier.

 

[bigcmagor]

There were two extensive stamp collections that landed in my mother's lap from her father and brother. Unfortunately, she found the greatest value was to lick them and use them for postage. It can take a lot of licking to mail a letter today with 40 year old stamps.

 

[Koolau]

We've covered this issue a time or two in the past. While there are certainly some valuable stamps out there, the chance that "collectors" (rather than investors) have a "valuable" stamp would be, well, rare.

I've gone through this twice with older folks who passed away and left books of stamps and boxes of loose stamps. I found one old stamp dealer willing to spend time going over one collection. I think he took pity on the widow. Must have taken days. I think he valued an entire life-time collection at between $100 and $200 total (if sold to another collector.) It's sort of sad really. Coin collections are similar, though many older coins - collected from pocket change DO have silver value. Stamps are typically collected for passing time - not to make a fortune. Anything is possible, so YMMV.

 

[ocean view]

My mom sold hers in 2019 through an auction house, Harmer-Schau Auctions in Petaluma CA. They kept 20%. I think she said she got 40% of the face value of the stamps. She was happy with the experience.

 

[ocean view]

DM suggests donating them to a non-profit or church who can use them on mailings. Doing so will get you a charitable deduction for full face value if you itemize.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Rustic23]

I have a friend who is an avid collector/investor. His main collection is Civil War Covers. To paraphrase what he has said, "unless the collection is very old. like pre civil war, well, value may be hard to come by." There are several society of philatelist that may be able to help. I know he has bought whole collections at auction.

 

[ocean view]

DM suggests donating them to a non-profit or church who can use them on mailings. Doing so will get you a charitable deduction for full face value if you itemize.

Sorry for your loss.

DM just texted to let me know the charitable deduction for the donation of stamps is no longer available. Sorry for giving incorrect info.

 

[CSdot]

Hopefully you will find an upside down airplane stamp in the collection.

 

[DrRoy]

Hopefully you will find an upside down airplane stamp in the collection.

DW is Jenny, but she's not inverted.

 

[athena53]

My mother had a friend whose father's collection sold for over $1 million but that's the exception!

When I was de-cluttering I decided to deal with my small collection. Lots of used stamps pasted or hinged in albums- virtually worthless. Even the ones I'd bought by mail from dealers "on approval" were flashy pictorials from countries where probably 90% of the population never used the postal system. John F. Kennedy was a popular subject. The mint US commemoratives were worth pretty much face value and how can you put enough 4 cent stamps on a letter and still have room for the address?

So, I pitched all of those and went to my small collection of stamps from Hawaii, which were issued in the 1800s. I bought them when I was in college and on a limited budget, so no expensive rarities. I sold them on e-Bay. One was in a folder with the price I'd paid marked on it. That's about what I got for it 40 years later.

 

[albireo13]

There are a lot of early 1900 US stamps as well as a lot of foreign stamps.

 

[athena53]

From the research I did when selling my items, "Mint, never hinged" was the gold standard and the easiest to sell. Used, especially if it was hinged, is less valuable unless it's a very scarce stamp. Be careful, too, of "pre-cancels", which are cancelled but have the gum intact on the back. These are typical of the ones issued by developing countries mostly for the collector's market.

 

[Aerides]

There are a lot of early 1900 US stamps as well as a lot of foreign stamps.

You'd have to find a source to validate prices and understand conditions. And early 1900 doesn't mean a whole lot. Many stamps from that era still worth only pennies. It's the rare ones, the misprints. Then things like...are the perforations only one two sides (a corner from the printing), or for used ones does it also have a really nice postmarking.

IOW, you might have some gems in there, but you might also have something that was more sentimental than valuable.

 

[Koolau]

DW is Jenny, but she's not inverted.

You're very observant or knowledgeable. Good catch (DW as well!)